RACOM Issues - Polk

[cloneluke]

Anyone else having issue with RACOM lately in Polk county (sheriff and other depts)?

I am not picking up anything and I am thinking either something has changed or I have a programming issue....

[Haley]

Not sure , but they might be having a problem with site down there. I am listening to them right now off the Marshalltown tower. Mike

[cloneluke]

If they are having issues with the site, it is both des moines and west des moines sites...

[Radioman96p71]

Just my $.02, there has been a lot of chatter on GID 1019, RACOM TechOps about 'rebanding' of sites. Not sure if they are taking sites offline briefly to do testing or what but i have noticed 'odd' behavior lately too. I have been scanning the 855-865 band daily to see if anything has moved around Des Moines, nothing so far. I have TechOps set as my priority right now, trying to figure out just whats going on!

Another off-topic, Marshall Co Sheriff TAC has been up and down daily for the past 2-3 days, using TAC2 for normal operations. Im wondering if there is some talkgroup restructuring going on or if they might be finally switching to ProVoice like a previous thread mentioned...

KCØGIK

[Haley]

I have been noticing the same thing Radioman. They have been re-banding a lot of radios, according to the RACOM techs.

I heard a coversation between two RACOM salesman the other day talking about this great new radio coming, they thought some of their customers would be interested. They talked about how it would do, VHF,UHF, 700/800 trunking, and non-trunking AND be capable of P-25 Phase1, and the kicker P-25 Phase 2. The price per radio -----------------------$6500.00!

Also heard 2 deputies talking about how they disliked the new set-ups in the cars. Mike

[Radioman96p71]

Are you monitoring Marshalltown Haley? I only monitor there during the day when im at work so I miss a lot when im home / on the road. I run trunker on my laptop when im up there to see if I can see anything changing. I have heard a LOT of officers 'stopping by' RACOM during their shift to 'switch out' something. I can only guess they are exchanging their LPE and MRK portables for p7100/p7200's. Another officer dropped his car there for about an hour to have an install done. Probably the Orion getting replaced with a m7100. I havent seen much changing as far as talkgroups or radio ID's, but they sure are using 'backup' channels a lot lately, making me think they are trying to get everyone off the primary talkgroup so they can switch it to digital all at once. But I hope im wrong!

On another note, the techs have been doing a large amount of ProFile's on radios this past week. Something like that would make rebanding pretty painless, as long as all the radios are ProFile capable, and they dont accidentally kill their radio with an improper codeplug!


KCØGIK

[Haley]

Yes I am monitoring Marshalltown. Ive been able to more than usual, due to arm surgery. I heard a lot of talk also about switching out, they were (officers ) also talking about their P7100 radios. Talkgroups for the most part are the same, although like you said-----lots of backup channels in use. 159.0900 of course, the Vhf backup sees quite a bit of use.


One thing that makes me think they are ready to switch to Provoice mode(or are testing right now), is the constant open mic. sound on the main trunked Disp. channel. It sounds like somebody is keying up, but no voice. I need to monitor 159.090and see if its active at the same time as that TG. The whole site seems to be a little quite this weekend also. Probably not a good sign ! If you hear anything keep us posted. I will be out of town next week, so I wont be able to listen. Mike

[Radioman96p71]

Will do, ill be working all week. I have too noticed the open mic on TAC, very odd. Its coming from the patch radio that ties the conventional 159.09 to the TRS. Noone seems to care, though. When the open mic closes, traffic continues as normal, leading me to think they know about the testing going on and they have just been told to ignore it lol It would be nice if they set up the patch radio to re-transmit the same talkgroup when it goes ProVoice, least then it can still be monitored.

Guess we will find out soon enuf!

Polk county is also eerily quiet again today... Traffic has been almost nonexistent this morning until just a few minutes ago. I realize its sunday but come on, SOMETHING has to be going on! lol

KCØGIK

[Haley]

I did hear two RACOM guys this morning talking about a system-wide failure alarm. They said it was effecting some dispatch and 911 calls. Qwest is supossed to be working on it. The RACOM guys were surprised there were not more calls from different depts. They mentioned an outside company that starts with an I. Sorry I cant remember what it was called. They more or less said the problem was at their end, but as I said effecting RACOM also.


I hate to say it, but I think our suspicions are probably right. Provoice will be here sooner than we think! Mike

[newsphotog]

ProVoice for just Marshalltown or more systems elsewhere too?

[LID109]

Sounds like RACOM needs to start encrypting thier comms.

[bar422]

WIth Racom prices they will be the only one that can afford encryption! None of the other agencies will be able too. Racom can't even provide their current customers with radios that will work......just ask Black Hawk County how well their new ones work.

[LID109]

lol, ok Brad.

[Radioman96p71]

Originally Posted by newsphotog

ProVoice for just Marshalltown or more systems elsewhere too?

Hard to say, I can only hear so far from my listening post so im not sure of anywhere outside central Iowa. What I can speculate tho, is that during this rebanding, now would be a good time to implement it as you have to reconfigure all the sites and radios anyways, would be as simple as changing 2 settings in the personality. Im not real familiar with how the sites are physically set up, so they may not have PV capable controller shelves installed even. But from what ive heard here, there is some PV chatter off the Des Moines site and the Marshalltown site, just not Polk county or Marshall county units.

So, 109, was it a tornado that took it out or just power failure in Cedar Falls??? :P

KCØGIK

[bar422]

Am I wrong?

[LID109]

simple power failure in the area at CFU, PD told me it went right over/thru/ontop of the tower. I held my breath.

[Radioman96p71]

Originally Posted by LID109

simple power failure in the area at CFU, PD told me it went right over/thru/ontop of the tower. I held my breath.

Ha ha, yea i was hearing the action and watching the radar. Close call for sure! Sounds like 108 didn't fare so well...

Have a good Monday!

KCØGIK

[pm1072]

Originally Posted by bar422

WIth Racom prices they will be the only one that can afford encryption! None of the other agencies will be able too. Racom can't even provide their current customers with radios that will work......just ask Black Hawk County how well their new ones work.

Yeah, one can check with the City of Moline, IL Police in particular. When they first went aboard reception was SO bad on the EDACS network, the Fraternal Order of Police (IL) basically deemed it unsafe and if it wasn't corrected there would be some fall-out that would occur do to that situation.

Scott Co. Sheriff also has it's share of problems, and notice all deputies wear speaker mics with antennas on them, otherwise in their rural areas, coverage outside the car would be less than white-noise. Apparently the LeClaire PD was told that the use of after-market batteries causes coverage issues...lol. I can see why departments are going to after-market batteries as you can get a good quality battery for 1/2 or more the cost and without causing any RF issues.